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On Twentieth Anniversary of Oklahoma City Bombing, Feds Warn of Domestic Extremist Threat

A photo of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building following the Oklahoma City Bombing on April 19, 2015.

A joint intelligence bulletin issued by the Department of Homeland Security and FBI to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing warns that “domestic extremism will remain a persistent threat through the end of 2015 and beyond” with “high confidence that lone offenders and those who pursue leaderless resistance continue to pose the greatest threat of violence.” The bulletin, which is based on “recent patterns of extremist activity” often “taken by those who plan and act alone or in small cells,” states that domestic extremism “remains a persistent threat, and the United States has experienced violent ideologically-motivated criminal acts, both prior to and after the Oklahoma City attack” including “assaults, arsons, shootings, and use, or attempted use, of improvised incendiary and explosive devices, resulting in death, injury, and property damage.” Moreover, the bulletin states that “many of the same motivations used by domestic extremists to justify their criminal acts in the mid-1990s—anti-government and anti-law enforcement sentiment; racial, ethnic, and religious hatred; and advocacy of violent conspiracy theories—continue to influence domestic extremists and their targeting choices in 2015.”

The bulletin, titled “Twenty Years after Oklahoma City Bombing, Domestic Extremism Remains a Persistent Threat,” was originally posted online to a public website associated with the Northwest Warning, Alert and Response Network (NW-WARN), a “collaborative effort between government and private sector partners” throughout the region “with a goal to maximize real-time sharing of situational information without delay and provide immediate distribution of intelligence to those in the field who need to act on it.” The bulletin has since been removed. However, Public Intelligence was able to obtain a copy of the bulletin prior to its removal from the site.

To illustrate the “scale of the current threat” from domestic extremists, the bulletin cites eighteen incidents between January 1, 2014 and April 1, 2015 that were “conducted by individuals inside the United States in furtherance of political or social agendas without foreign direction, are criminal and violent in nature and caused, or could have reasonably caused death, grievous harm, or financial losses of at least $1 million.” The incidents vary both in scope and motivation, from a 52-year-old woman from Austin, Texas who threw a Molotov cocktail at a Planned Parenthood facility in March to a plot by a “Moorish sovereign citizen” to kill the police chief of Ferguson, Missouri following protests over the killing of Michael Brown last year. In addition to attacks perpetrated by Earth Liberation Front members and other left-wing extremists, the bulletin also highlights the events that occurred in April 2014 at the Bundy Ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada in which dozens of “militia extremists converged on a Nevada ranch to prevent [the Bureau of Land Management] from executing a court order to seize cattle in a dispute over unpaid grazing fees.” These “militia extremists” in association with “individuals from across the country . . . who reacted to reports about altercations between BLM personnel and the rancher’s family and supporters that alleged unnecessary excess on the part of the US Government” eventually engaged in an “armed standoff and the ultimate suspension of the BLM operation due to militia extremist threats.”

The bulletin also contains a list of the various types of domestic extremists recognized by the DHS and FBI, including animal rights extremists, black separatist extremists, militia extremists and sovereign citizen extremists:

(U//FOUO) Domestic Extremists: individuals present in the United States who seek to further political or social goals, wholly or in part, through unlawful acts of force or violence. The mere advocacy of political or social positions, political activism, use of strong rhetoric, or generalized philosophic embrace of violent tactics may not constitute extremism, and may be constitutionally protected. This definition does not include or describe homegrown violent extremists, who are defined by the FBI as al-Qa‘ida-inspired individuals based in the United States and radicalized primarily in the United States, and are not directly collaborating with a foreign terrorist organization.

(U//FOUO) Animal Rights Extremists: individuals who seek, wholly or in part, through unlawful acts of force or violence, to further their opposition to people, businesses, or government entities perceived to be exploiting or abusing animals. The mere advocacy of political or social positions, political activism, use of strong rhetoric, or generalized philosophic embrace of violent tactics may not constitute extremism, and may be constitutionally protected.

(U//FOUO) Black Separatist Extremists: individuals who seek, wholly or in part, through unlawful acts of force or violence, to attain separation from the non-black US population. This separation includes, but is not limited to, physical separation, political separation, or social separation as demonstrated by separate communities, political institutions, or social organizations. This desire for separation is typically based on either a religious or political belief system, which is sometimes formed around or includes a belief in racial superiority or supremacy. The mere advocacy of political or social positions, political activism, use of strong rhetoric, or generalized philosophic embrace of violent tactics may not constitute extremism, and may be constitutionally protected.

(U//FOUO) Environmental Extremists: individuals who seek, wholly or in part, through unlawful acts of force or violence, to further their opposition to people, businesses, or government entities perceived to be destroying, degrading, or exploiting the natural environment. The mere advocacy of political or social positions, political activism, use of strong rhetoric, or generalized philosophic embrace of violent tactics may not constitute extremism, and may be constitutionally protected.

(U//FOUO) Lone Offenders: individuals who, operating alone or without the witting support of others, seek to advance, wholly or in part, a particular ideology or social agenda through unlawful acts of force or violence in violation of federal law.

(U//FOUO) Militia Extremists: individuals who seek, wholly or in part, to engage in unlawful acts of force or violence in response to perceived abuses of power or authority by government, perceived threats to Constitutional rights by government, or bureaucratic incompetence in attending to critical tasks. The mere advocacy of political or social positions, political activism, use of strong rhetoric, or generalized philosophic embrace of violent tactics may not constitute extremism, and may be constitutionally protected.

(U//FOUO) Sovereign Citizen Extremists: individuals who openly reject their US citizenship status, believe that most forms of established government, authority, and institutions are illegitimate, and seek, wholly or in part, through unlawful acts of force or violence, to further their claim to be immune from government authority. The mere advocacy of political or social positions, political activism, use of strong rhetoric, or generalized philosophic embrace of violent tactics may not constitute extremism, and may be constitutionally protected.

(U//FOUO) White Supremacist Extremists: individuals who seek, wholly or in part, through unlawful acts of force or violence, to support their belief in the intellectual and moral superiority of the white race over other races. The mere advocacy of political or social positions, political activism, use of strong rhetoric, or generalized philosophic embrace of violent tactics may not constitute extremism, and may be constitutionally protected.